Even though solar power systems have become much less expensive in recent years, they still continue to be too expensive for some homeowners on a very tight budget.

Actually, too expensive for me and for most of us.

I am not too fond of a Return on Investment estimated in decades.

So for these consumers (=us), the cost of these systems is still out of reach – and reason – and therefore won’t allow them to take advantage of this amazing alternative power solution.

In order to help reduce the cost of a system to an affordable and reasonable level, many homeowners are simply starting to make solar panels themselves, which does lower the price of a system by more than half in many or even most cases.

And because the cost of the Solar Panels is always the largest expense in any solar power system, reducing the cost of these panels does have a dramatic affect on the overall cost – and effectiveness and Return on Investment – of your solar power for homes project.

So if you make the solar panels yourself instead of simply buying the commercial versions, you can save thousands of dollars on each panel and help to make a basic system very affordable.

In years past, building one of these DIY solar panels from scratch was difficult and the results were less than impressive.

These early attempts were fine for powering a small battery charger or water pump but were not typically used in a home solar power system.

Because of great improvements to the quality and availability of the parts used to build these panels, these DIY solar panels are now easier than ever to build. They are also more powerful and when completed can easily be used in a home solar power system and will have the same specifications as most commercial models.

This is primarily because these newer DIY solar panels use the exact same solar cells as the commercial models, which provide far more power than older versions.

Only the price is better.

When you make solar panels from scratch, you have a few choices on how to complete the project.

Make Solar Panel Kit

The easiest way is simply to use one of the many solar panel kits available on the market, like those done by Kriss Bergethon (see the free ebook on the right side you get by signing up for my free newsletter). He lives self-sufficient and DIY off grid in Colorado.

His webpage is designed for US citizens. If you live outside the US, check out my page Solar Panel Cost how to calculate the Power you need to generate for every place in the world.

Btw.: ’Offset’ in the form means how much energy you want to take off your bill and have it produced by your own panels.

These solar panel kits include all of the parts you’ll need to build one of these DIY solar panels as well as a very detailed manual that shows each of the assembly steps required.

Using one of these kits should allow you to build a fully functional solar panel in a few hours that can start generating free power from the sun you can immediately use in your home. While this is not the least expensive way to make solar panels, it is the easiest for the novice builder.

Once you build your first few solar panels and understand the process, you may decide to not use a kit for any others you build and simply locate the parts you need for the project yourself. There are quite a few vendors on the internet that offer the parts required for building these DIY solar panels and many of them even sell the detailed assembly manuals as well. When you make solar panels from scratch this way you can save you even more money over simply using a kit and will allow you to install an even larger system with the savings. Both of these methods are easy for the average homeowner to handle and won’t require any special tools or advanced knowledge to complete.